Song covers are a very prominent example of online video, and because there are so many of them online, they have developed their own kind of cliche style. In this cliche, the subject of the video gives a quick (often awkward or unscripted) introduction of themselves and the song they’re about to cover, and then the remainder of the video consists of them performing and saying a quick ‘thanks for watching’ at the end. We took this format and stuck to it, however the parody aspect comes from subverting expectations, the song being covered not fitting in with the cliche. Although perhaps not obvious at first, the humour here is attributed to character. We stick with the cliched, awkwardly presented character, and the presence of an acoustic guitar in the video hints at an interest in softer, mellower music. This is what you expect to be covered. However, our sketch uses the song “Move Bitch” by Ludacris, which is crude and renders the guitar pointless, yet our character plays along as if this is completely fitting in with the rest of the video and her style, and finishes with a quiet thank-you. The humour here comes from character, as the viewer is forced to view the video outside of their expectations and view this character in a new, contradictory light. This is where the narrative aspect begins to come in, as the character becomes slightly more three-dimensional, and the viewer has to consider a kind of cause and effect process that has led to this shy, awkward character acoustically covering this song. It may not result in the video being completely narrative in form, but it has taken a traditionally non-narrative video and added narrative elements into it through parodying its character.
